NAN WAH WAH AUNG: BUILDING A NETWORK OF FRIENDS

Nan Wah Wah Aung was a student at Wide Horizons (WH) from 2008 to 2009. WH gave me
the confidence I need in my professional life, she says today. Serving as the deputy director of a
medical organization that started as a small community based group and is today being cited in
medical journals, she has every reason to be confident.

Nan Wah Wah Aung grew up in Karen state in Eastern
Myanmar, where her and her siblings attended
primary school. Her sister suffered from tuberculosis,
and their family could not afford the treatment. This
family misfortune inspired her to pursue a career in
the medical field. After finishing her education in
Myanmar, she went to Mae Sot in Thailand to
volunteer at Mae Tao Clinic, a local clinic that provides
free healthcare for underprivileged migrants from
Myanmar living in Thailand. Over the next three years,
she gained a significant amount of knowledge and
experience in the medical field, but she was frustrated
that her English was not strong enough to communicate with foreign doctors and staff.
Therefore, she applied to Wide Horizons (WH). The WH Program is a 10 month intensive study
and field work course in community development followed by a one-year internship with a
community based organization. The program brings in young adults from a wide variety of
ethnicities to live and work together while learning the skills to build community services in a
collaborative way. Since it was established in 2006, WH has trained hundreds of young adults
who are now community workers and leaders.

During her year at WH, her English improved rapidly.
Moreover, she gained a lot of experience with the
theoretical and practical elements of Community
Development. However, the most important
experience was, according to Nan Wah Wah Aung,
working with people from a range of different
backgrounds. Before I only worked with the health
community, but at WH I opened my eyes to many
different kinds of work. One friend came from an orphanage in Shan State [In Myanmar] and
another from a womens organization in Sangkhlaburi [in Thailand]. We all had different
backgrounds and different point of view, so we had to be flexible to reach a goal together, she
says. And working together also led to the forging of very close friendships If I travel to Chiang
Mai in Thailand or to Shan and Mon State in Myanmar, I always meet with friends from WH. We
use each other as a network to help each other she says.

Today, Nan Wah Wah Aung is the Deputy Director of the Burma Medical Association (BMA), an
organization that provides medical and first aid training to community health workers and
mobile medical teams, and arranges community health education workshops and HIV
prevention education. BMA is currently supporting over 30 clinics, serving approximately
200,000 people across six states in Myanmar. Part of Nan Wah Wah Aungs job is to manage
community health programs focusing on issues, such as malaria prevention and water and
sanitation. Moreover, she is also directly responsible for training local field staff and reporting
to international donors.

Of all the skills she acquired at WH, the most important is, according to Nan Wah Wah Aung,
time management. Currently she is working full time and is at the same time completing an 18-
month TOEFL preparation course with We Women, a Chiang Mai based organization that
supports female professionals from Myanmar,
whom have been identified as role models. On
top of working and studying, Nan Wah Wah
Aung also has to make time for her 10-month
old baby. But I have no stress, I use my time
management skills, she says. And she has no
plans to slow down. Once she finishes her
course with We Women, she plans to enter a
graduate program in Bangkok and earn a
Masters Degree in Public Health.

Nan Wah Wah Aung hopes WH will be able to continue in the future and she would also like to
see a similar program that can open students eyes to people around them on the other side of
the border. In Burma, the organizations need to understand each other across language and
ethnicity, because this reflects reality. To develop the whole country, we need to open our eyes,
she says.



For more information about Wide Horizons, contact: widehorizonsmaesot@gmail.com
or visit our page on Facebook (Wide Horizons, Community Development Program).